Hotels and campgrounds in Yosemite shut down
Park open for day use visits between 8 a.m., 5 p.m.
“If you have a sick patient in Yosemite Valley they’d have to be airlifted to Fresno, more than 90 miles away.”
— Dr. Eric Sergienko, the health officer for Mariposa County
Yosemite National Park closed all hotels and campgrounds on Monday, shutting down overnight accommodations for at least three weeks as the COVID-19 pandemic worsened across California and the nation.
Park officials said Yosemite will remain open for day use visits between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. every day. But the park gates will be locked overnight until at least Dec. 28.
Hiking, bicycling, sightseeing and rock climbing is allowed. The park will have limited food service on a carry- out basis. Gas stations remain open. And some retail stores are open at 20% capacity. But visitor centers, organized tours and shuttle buses are closed, and wilderness permit and ranger walks are canceled.
“We’re in a pandemic. Disease doesn’t recognize boundaries,” said Dr. Eric Sergienko, the health officer for Mariposa County. “Whatever happens in the park will impact the community around it. If the park has a large outbreak, their sick people will strain our local health
system. We could easily be overrun.”
Also Monday, Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park closed all lodging and restaurants due to the tightening pandemic rules. The National Park Service also closed Fort Point and ferry tours to Alcatraz Island in San Francisco on Sunday for at least three weeks, although most beaches and outdoor areas in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area remain open, along with Muir Woods National Monument. Most state, regional and county parks in California also remain open, but campgrounds and indoor visitor centers are closed.
“We work closely with our communities to be a partner, to do our part to reduce the risk of COVID-19 by following county public health authorities,” said Charles Strickfaden, a spokesman for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. “We urge everyone to stay safe, and remind our visitors that these changes do not impact the outdoor experience we know they rely on for respite.”
Sergienko noted that Mariposa County, where much of Yosemite is located, has no intensive care unit beds at its local hospital.
“If you have a sick patient in Yosemite Valley they’d have to be airlifted to Fresno, more than 90 miles away,” he said.
Although Yosemite is federal property, park leaders there and at other national parks in California have worked with local health officials to align park rules with county health rules. Under the stay- at- home orders issued last week by Gov. Gavin Newsom — aimed at preventing growing COVID-19 cases from overwhelming hospitals — campgrounds and hotels are closed to tourism in regions of the state where availability of intensive care unit beds at hospitals drops below 15%.
Mariposa County is in the San Joaquin Valley region. As of Monday, that region had only 6% of its ICU beds open, the fewest in the state. Fresno County has 172 ICU beds, but only six were available on Monday, Sergienko said. The regional stay-at-home order took effect at 11:59 p.m. Sunday in Calaveras, Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced, San Benito, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Tulare and Tuolumne counties. Five of the nine Bay Area counties — Marin, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Alameda and Contra Costa — also proactively adopted the stay-at-home order.
Under the state’s stayat-home rules, in regions that have less than 15% ICU bed availability, hotels and campgrounds cannot accept out- of-state reservations for nonessential travel, unless a reservation is for at least two weeks, the minimum time period required for quarantine, and the people staying will remain in quarantine there for at least two weeks.
In those areas, hotels and campgrounds can provide accommodation for essential workers, like doctors or nurses, and participate in programs to house homeless people. But bars, movie theaters, barbershops, hair salons, museums and zoos are closed. Retail stores are limited to 20% capacity. And restaurants are restricted to takeout or delivery service only.
Sergienko said that Yosemite officials have been in discussions in recent days with health officers, sheriffs and supervisors from the surrounding counties about how the park will be affected by the state rules. He said hotels outside the park in the surrounding counties also are closed to most visitors.
“It’s a park decision, but certainly one that we support and encouraged,” he said. “We are a rural county. We don’t have the resources to take care of significant numbers of people.”
Yosemite closed its gates for much of the spring after the pandemic began. It reopened this summer. But park officials put in place a day use reservation system to limit visitation to 50% of normal.
That system was considered a success. There were no major outbreaks in Yosemite, and reservation rules were lifted Nov. 1. But tests on sewage done in recent weeks have shown people with COV ID - 19 have been in the park, with spikes near the Wawona area, Sergienko said.
December is typically one of the least-visited months for Yosemite National Park. On average, about 120,000 people have visited Yosemite in December in recent years, about 20% of the average during July, the park’s busiest month.
The park does draw December visitors to Badger Pass Ski area and the Bracebridge Dinner, a Christmas pageant held in the Ahwahnee Hotel since 1927 with performers acting out 18th- century English festivities. This year, because of the pandemic, Badger Pass already was closed for the winter season and the Bracebridge Dinner was canceled until next year.
Under state rules, regions affected by the stayat-home orders can reevaluate after three weeks. If they are above the 15% ICU bed threshold, they can reopen.
“Stay home. The bottom line is stay home,” Sergienko said. “Recreate closer to home. Yosemite will still be here after three weeks. Our collective action does make a difference. We’ll see you again when this is all over.”